Ethernet over Copper to Surpass Legacy Services by 2014

It’s only a matter of time before Ethernet over Copper (EoC) surpasses T1 in demand. In fact, the revenue from Ethernet services has already surpassed that from legacy data services. EoC is considered a primary driver of the overall market for Ethernet, which is projected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 28% between now and 2016.

MegaPath’s expansion plans mirror this projection. We’ll increase our nationwide EoC central offices from more than 400 today to approximately 680 by June 2012. We are making this investment because we are confident that EoC will replace legacy revenues by the end of 2014 and will prove to be our flagship access service. Here’s why:

The price and performance are right. Customers want better communication services, but they don’t want to pay more for them. EoC presents a more affordable, viable solution with superior performance for both short and long reach. The technology has been perfected for seamless connectivity, high scalability, ease of maintenance, and enduring reliability—the pillars of business-class service. EoC frees businesses from relying on internal IT teams to manage their switches and drivers, unlike with T1s and other legacy services. Our custom EoC solutions are IP-based and come with all the industry-leading SLAs and support that businesses need. With EoC, businesses can depend on their providers for pretty much everything, freeing up their internal staffers to pursue other productive tasks.

Timing is everything. While fiber optic-based access services will play a major role in the future, only 25% of office buildings are currently equipped for optical services, and the growth has been painstakingly slow. The cost of implementing fiber—not to mention its deployment times—are prohibitive for customers in fast-moving markets. Copper-based services are faster to deploy, and MegaPath has been doing it for more than 15 years. On average, EoC deployments can take 30 days; for fiber, the wait is 120 to 150 days. For business owners, the choice is easy.

Constant connectivity. When a fiber feed goes on the fritz, it tends to knock out all available services. There is no redundancy in most cases, and fiber feeds can take hours to repair, which can be costly downtime for any company. When EoC experiences a problem, it is quick to fix. Because we have built-in redundancy and none of our customers are far from our central offices, disruption to operations is minimal.

Soaring scalability. It is this simple. If you want to increase bandwidth with T1, you’ll need to have a truck drive to your offices to roll out new circuits. In most cases with EoC, you can get the additional speeds you need with existing circuits. In other cases, additional circuits may need to be added to achieve the higher speeds.

Given the benefits of EoC—better reach, price, performance, dependability, and scalability—is there really any reason not to expect EoC to emerge as dominant? We don’t think so. That’s why, in several years, you will probably think of T1 as a relic from another age.